1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cooling air supply of a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a cooling air supply apparatus of a refrigerator that is capable of uniformly maintaining a cooling air distribution of a cooling chamber and capable of performing a concentrated cooling at a portion where a load is generated according to the load generated in the cooling chamber.
2. Description of the Background Art
In general, a refrigerator includes a freezing chamber for storing an ice tray for making ice and a frozen food and a cooling chamber for storing refrigerated items. The refrigerator also includes a cooling cycle for supplying cooling air to the freezing chamber and the cooling chamber.
In order to keep items in a fresh state for a long period of time, the internal temperature of the freezing chamber and the cooling chamber is necessarily maintained evenly. For this purpose, a method that a cooling air discharging hole is formed at a side wall and a rear face of the refrigerator, from which cooling air is discharged is mostly adopted.
FIG. 1 is a front view of a cooling air supply apparatus of a refrigerator in accordance with a conventional art, FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line Axe2x80x94A of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line Bxe2x80x94B of FIG. 2.
The conventional refrigerator includes a main body 102 having a certain space for storing items and a door 103 formed at an opened front side thereof so as to be opened and shut; a freezing chamber 104 formed at an upper side of the main body 102 and storing a frozen food; a cooling chamber 106 divided from the freezing chamber 104 by a barrier 108 and formed at a lower portion of the main body 102 for storing refrigerated items; a door 106 disposed at an opened front face of the main body 102 so as to be opened and shut; a freezing system (not shown) mounted inside the main body 102 and cooling air; and a cooling air supply apparatus supplying cooling air generated while passing the freezing cycle to the cooling chamber 106.
The cooling chamber 106 is formed at a lower portion of the main body 102 and a plurality of shelves 110 for receiving items are mounted in a horizontal direction therein. The cooling chamber includes a vegetable box 112 at its lower side.
The cooling air supply apparatus includes a blowing fan 116 disposed at a rear side of the cooling chamber 104 and circulating cooling air passing a evaporator 114 of the cooling cycle to the freezing chamber 104 and the cooling chamber 106; a shroud 118 having a discharge hole 120 for discharging the cooling air ventilated from the blowing fan 116 to the freezing chamber 104; a supply passage 122 formed at the barrier 108 and supplying the cooling air ventilated from the blowing fan 116 to the cooling chamber 106; a rear guide passage 124 branched from the supply passage 122 and guiding the cooling air backwardly of the cooling chamber 106; a right guide passage 126 branched from the supply passage 122 and guiding cooling air rightwardly of the cooling chamber 106; a left guide passage 128 branched from the rear guide passage 122 and guiding cooling air leftwardly of the cooling chamber 106; a rear discharge duct 130 communicating with the rear guide passage 124 and formed at a rear face of the cooling chamber 106 for discharging cooling air backwardly of the cooling chamber 106; a right discharge duct 132 communicating with the right guide passage and formed at a left face of the cooling chamber 106 for discharging cooling air rightwardly of the cooling chamber 106; and a left discharge duct 134 communicating with the left guide passage 128 and discharging cooling air leftwardly of the cooling chamber 105.
The cooling air supply passage 122 is formed at one rear side of the barrier 108 for receiving the cooling air from the blowing fan installed at the rear side of the freezing chamber 104, and supplies each half cooling air to the right guide passage 126 and the rear guide passage 124.
The left guide passage 128 is branched from the rear guide passage 124 and guide a portion of the cooling air supplied to the rear guide passage 124 to the left discharge duct 134.
The rear discharge duct 130, the right discharge duct 132 and the left discharge duct 134 respectively includes a plurality of discharge holes 140, 142 and 144 for discharging cooling air.
Suction passages 150 and 152 are formed at one side of the barrier 108 to suck cooling air which has completed cooling operation of the freezing chamber 104 and the cooling chamber 106 and sucked into the evaporator 114.
In the conventional cooling air supply apparatus, when the blowing fan 116 is driven, air cooled while passing the evaporator 114 of the freezing cycle is discharged to the freezing chamber 104 through the discharge hole 120 formed at the shroud 118 to perform a cooling operation of the freezing chamber, and then supplied to the cooling air supply passage 122.
Half of the cooling air supplied to the cooling air supply passage 122 is introduced into the right discharge duct 132 through the right guide passage 126 and the remaining half of the cooling air is introduced into the rear discharge duct 130 through the rear guide passage 124.
A portion of the cooling air introduced into the rear discharge duct 130 is supplied to the left discharge duct 134 through the left guide passage 128.
The cooling air supplied to each discharge duct is discharged from the rear left and right side of the cooling chamber 106 through the discharge holes 140, 142 and 144 formed at each discharge duct, thereby performing a cooling operation of the cooling chamber 106.
After completing the cooling operation while circulating the cooling chamber 106 and the freezing chamber 104, the cooling air is introduced into the evaporator 114 through the cooling air inflow passages 150 and 452.
However, the conventional cooling air supply apparatus of a refrigerator has the following problems.
That is, since the cooling air supply passage and the rear and right guide passages are connected and the right guide passage is connected to the rear guide passage, the cooling air supplied from the cooling air supply passage is divided to be supplied to the right guide passage and the rear guide passage, and the cooling air supplied to the rear guide passage is again divided to be supplied to the left guide passage, resulting in that the amount of cooling air discharged from the right discharge duct and the amount of cooling air discharged from the rear and the left guide passages differ.
In other words, since the amount of cooling air discharged from the three sides of the cooling chamber differ each other, the temperature distribution of the cooling chamber is uneven according to the deviation of the amount of cooling air.
In addition, when a load is generated at a certain portion of the cooling chamber as a foodstuff is received therein, since a uniform cooling air is constantly discharged through each discharge hole, it takes long time to make the temperature distribution of the cooling chamber even.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a cooling air supply apparatus of a refrigerator that is capable of making the amount of cooling air discharged from three sides of a cooling chamber by evenly distributing cooling air through a plurality of guide passages guiding cooling air from a cooling air supply passage to three sides of a cooling chamber.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a cooling air supply apparatus that is capable of performing a rapid cooling operation and maintaining a temperature distribution of a cooling chamber to be even by concentratively discharging cooling air to a portion where a load occurs when the load partially occurs as a foodstuff is received into the cooling chamber.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a cooling air supply apparatus of a refrigerator that is capable of controlling an amount of cooling air being supplied according to a position of a cooling chamber and thus increasing an overall efficiency of a refrigerator.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, there is provided a cooling air supply apparatus including: a blowing fan attached at a rear wall face of a freezing chamber and forcefully circulating air cooled while passing an evaporator of a freezing cycle; a supply passage formed at a barrier partitioning the freezing chamber and a cooling chamber and supplying cooling air ventilated from the blowing fan to the cooling chamber; a rear guide passage branched from the cooling air passage and guiding cooling air backwardly of the cooling chamber; a right guide passage branched from the cooling air supply passage and guiding cooling air rightwardly of the cooling chamber; and a left guide passage branched from the cooling air supply passage, having the same diameter as that of the right guide passage and guiding cooling air leftwardly of the cooling chamber.
In the cooling air supply apparatus of a refrigerator of the present invention, the rear guide passage is formed at one side of the barrier in a horizontal direction and a half of the cooling air supplied from the supply passage is guided to the rear discharge duct.
In the cooling air supply apparatus of a refrigerator of the present invention, the right guide passage is formed at a right side of the barrier in a vertical direction and guides one-fourth of the cooling air supplied from the supply passage to the right discharge duct.
In the cooling air supply apparatus of a refrigerator of the present invention, the left guide passage is formed at the barrier to have a certain slant angle and guides one-fourth of the cooling air supplied from the supply passage to the left discharge duct.
To achieve the above objects, there is also provided a cooling air supply apparatus of a refrigerator including: a blowing fan forcefully blowing cooling air to a freezing chamber and a cooling chamber; a supply passage formed at a barrier partitioning the freezing chamber and the cooling chamber and supplying cooling air ventilated by the blowing fan to the cooling chamber; a rear guide passage guiding cooling air supplied to supply passage to a rear cooling air duct formed at a rear face of the cooling chamber; a left guide passage guiding cooling air supplied to the cooling air supply passage to a left cooling air duct formed at left side of the cooling chamber; a right guide passage guiding cooling air supplied to the cooling air supply passage to a right cooling air duct formed at right side of the cooling chamber; and a controller installed at one side of the rear guide passage and opening and closing the rear guide passage as a refrigerator door is opened and shut.
In the cooling air supply apparatus of a refrigerator of the present invention, the controller includes: an open-and-shut valve rotatably mounted at one side of the rear guide passage and opening and closing the rear guide passage; a sensing unit installed at one side of the cooling chamber and detecting whether the refrigerator door is opened or shut; and a control unit operating the open-and-shut valve to shut the rear guide passage for a predetermined time period according to an electric signal applied from the sensing unit.
In the cooling air supply apparatus of a refrigerator of the present invention, the open-and-shut valve includes a disk-type valve plate rotatably mounted at one side of the rear guide passage and having the same diameter as the inner diameter of the rear guide passage; and a stepping motor connected to a rotational shaft of the valve plate and rotating the valve plate according to an electric signal of the controller.
In the cooling air supply apparatus of a refrigerator of the present invention, the sensing unit is installed as a switch at an opening side of the cooling chamber where the cooling chamber door is mounted so that when the cooling chamber door is opened, the sensing unit transmits an electric signal to the controller, while if the cooling chamber door is shut, a power is cut off.
In the cooling air supply apparatus of a refrigerator of the present invention, the controlling unit includes a timer for delaying for a predetermined time period a working time of the open-and-shut valve when the electric signal is applied thereto from the sensing unit.
To achieve the above objects, there is also provided a cooling air supply apparatus of a refrigerator including: a blowing fan forcefully circulating cooling air which has passed a freezing cycle to a cooling chamber and a freezing chamber; a barrier partitioning the cooling chamber and the freezing chamber; a supply passage formed at the barrier and supplying cooling air ventilated by the blowing fan to the cooling chamber; a rear guide passage branched from the supply passage and guiding cooling air backwardly of the cooling chamber; left and right guide passages branched rightwardly and leftwardly from the supply passage and guiding cooling air leftwardly and rightwardly of the cooling chamber; and a cooling air controlling unit for selectively opening and shutting the rear, left and right guide passages and concentratively discharging cooling air to a portion where a load occurs as the load occurs at the portion of the cooling chamber.
In the cooling air supply apparatus of a refrigerator of the present invention, the cooling air controlling unit includes: a sensing unit detecting a temperature of each portion inside the cooling chamber; a first valve installed at the rear guide passage to open and shut the rear guide passage; a second valve installed at a point where right and left guide passages are branched and selectively opening right and left guide passage; and a control unit operating the first and the second valve according to an electric signal applied from the sensing unit.
In the cooling air supply apparatus of a refrigerator of the present invention, the sensing unit includes a first temperature sensor installed at a rear side of the cooling chamber; a second temperature sensor installed at a left side of the cooling chamber door and detecting a temperature of the left side of the cooling chamber; and a third temperature sensor installed at a right side of the cooling chamber door and detecting a temperature of the right side of the cooling chamber.
In the cooling air supply apparatus of a refrigerator of the present invention, the first valve includes a valve plate formed having the same diameter as that of the rear guide passage and rotatably mounted at one side of the rear guide passage; and a stepping motor connected to a hinge shaft of the valve plate and rotating the valve plate.
In the cooling air supply apparatus of a refrigerator of the present invention, the second valve includes a valve plate rotatably installed at a point where the supply passage is branched to the right guide passage and the left guide passage and being operated in three directions, and a stepping motor installed at a hinge shaft of the valve plate and operating the valve plate in the three directions.
In the cooling air supply apparatus of a refrigerator of the present invention, the valve plate is formed as a disk type.
The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.